Web photo of insect identified as never-before-seen species

Samantha Murphy

When wildlife photographer Hock Ping Guek posted a picture of a delicate fly with patches of colour on its wings to photo-sharing site Flickr, he did not know he had come across a never-before-seen species of lacewing.

Guek uploaded the picture after photographing the lacewing in a forest in Selangor, Malaysia, last year. Entomologist Shaun Winterton contacted him months later, when he saw the picture online, and identified it as an entirely new lacewing species.

Guek sent a sample of the insect to Winterton for testing, and scientific journal ZooKeys recently published results of the findings.

"I first saw and photographed this species in the wild in its natural habitat on May 10, 2011," Guek wrote on his blog.

"A few lacewing experts informed me that this could be a new species. Luckily, I came across this beautiful species again on Jan. 27, 2012. Specimen was captured and sent to Mr. Winterton."

Both Guek and Winterton got credit for the discovery of the new species, which they named Semachrysa jade.